Neil Gaiman has some strong words about the lack of women writers on Doctor Who

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Author Neil Gaiman has taken to Tumblr with a rather pointed critique of the lack of women writing for everyone's favorite Time Lord.

Gailman, who wrote The Sandman comic-book series and American Gods (among many other fantasy novels), as well as two episodes of Doctor Who (“The Doctor’s Wife” and “Nightmare in Silver”), touched upon the rather glaring gender imbalance when answering a fan question on Tumblr:

guyplayfair asked: If you could hug any Doctor Who writer, which one would you hug? I think personally I would go for Robert Shearman, he looks cuddly and that beard would probably feel nice rubbing on your head. Russell T Davies also looks quite huggable but his propensity towards suits and lack of facial hair might not make it as pleasurable as Mr Shearman.

Gaiman answered:

I would like to hug all the women who have written for Doctor Who since 2008. All of them! I would start with…

What, nobody? That can’t be right…. (goes off, puzzled).

Yep, that’s right, it’s been six years since a woman has written for the BBC's timey-wimey fantasy series. Helen Raynor wrote the two-parter "The Sontaran Stratagem" and "The Poison Sky" for the fourth season back in 2008, under Russell T Davies. Raynor had written another double episode the year before with "Daleks in Manhattan" and "Evolution of the Daleks." Raynor had the honor of being the first-ever woman to write a Dalek story for the show.